


Gathering

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Episode: s02e09 Galileo, Episode: s02e13 Bartlet's Third State of the Union, Episode: s02e14 The War At Home, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-04-04
Updated: 2008-04-04
Packaged: 2019-05-15 01:44:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14781252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: The staff assembles to see pictures from the newly-found Galileo V.





	Gathering

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except, you know, textbooks.   
The characters are Aaron's.

Gathering

 

"Are they ready?"

President Bartlet looked up from his desk with a   
combination of amusement and pure excitement on his face   
to see his Deputy Chief of Staff come flying into the   
room. "They say five minutes," he replied. "Is everyone   
still around?"

Josh paused, hovering near the presidential seal on the   
carpet of the Oval Office. "C.J.'s in her office, Sam and   
Toby are locked up somewhere, Leo's -"

"Here," the Chief of Staff interrupted, coming into the   
room behind Josh. "I just got off the phone with NASA   
public relations. They say they're getting the networks   
on board and they'll be ready to broadcast in an hour."

"They said five minutes," the President corrected a   
little plaintively. "What's going to take an hour?"

"Five minutes till contact check," Leo clarified. "An   
hour till they can get everything hooked back up and get   
the footage out to the networks." 

"Leo."

They all turned to see Margaret standing in the doorway.   
"Sam Donaldson on line one."

Leo strode purposefully out of the room after his   
assistant. Josh turned his attention back to President   
Bartlet with an enthusiastic smile on his face. "What can   
I do?" he asked.

"Brief C.J., tell her to give the press the heads up, but   
they can watch the broadcast in an hour in the press   
room. And find everybody else, get them in here in an   
hour."

"Yes sir." Josh practically ran from the room in his   
eagerness to find Sam. Jed Bartlet watched him go with a   
fond smile playing about his lips, pleased to see the   
younger man showing signs of life. He had been much   
better lately, but no one could tell his boss not to   
worry.

With a sigh the President pushed his chair back and   
stood. Since receiving the news he'd been flooded with a   
rush of energy and adrenaline. He wanted to be doing   
something, not just waiting around and letting others   
make the arrangements. He wanted to spread the news   
himself.

As he made his way out into the bullpen he saw Toby and   
C.J. huddled around Josh in a corner. Carol was hovering   
near her boss, taking notes and ready to run to the press   
room. The President caught sight of Ginger typing   
furiously at her desk and asked, "Where's Sam?" hoping to   
tell the youngest member of his staff the good news.

Ginger jumped to her feet. "He's down in the steam pipe   
trunk -"

"Distribution venue," the President finished with a tiny   
ironic smile. "I've been hearing that phrase a lot   
lately."

The corners of Ginger's mouth crooked upward a bit in   
reply. "I think they're working on a position paper,   
sir."

The President's eyebrow quirked upward in wry amusement.   
"He's working on a position paper with a Republican?"

Ginger shrugged. "She finds the holes so he can fix   
them."

"Right."

"Do you want me to call down?" She moved to pick up the   
receiver.

"No, no. I want to get him myself this time." He flashed   
her another smile and headed for the stairs, barely   
noticing the mutterings of "Eagle's moving" that followed   
him.

He tried to keep his footsteps light as he descended the   
stairs, leaving his agents on the landing. The voices   
coming from the office below sounded weary, and he paused   
a bit behind the doorway to spy for a moment. 

His curiosity had been piqued about the Republican on his   
staff, and even more so about her relationship to his   
Deputy Communications Director.

Both of the young staffers were sitting on the floor of   
her office - someone (probably Ainsley herself, he   
supposed) had dragged in a carpet and they were sprawled   
in the midst of thick law books and piles of paper. It   
was extraordinarily hot in the office and Sam was   
jacketless and tieless with his sleeves rolled up over   
his arms. Ainsley was wearing black pants and a sedate   
dark-colored shirt with short sleeves - considerably more   
than she'd been wearing on the occasion of their first   
meeting. Her long blond hair was pulled into a ponytail   
and she was bending way over an open book with Sam   
sitting awkwardly cross-legged near her.

"I think I have - no, never mind," she said, brushing   
back an imaginary loose strand of hair and sighing   
irritably at the page in front of her. Even from far away   
he could tell the print was small and she was squinting a   
little. "That doesn't help."

Sam rose onto one knee and leaned over, trying to read   
upside down. "I thought you found the statute from -"

"I did," she interrupted, "but it doesn't say what we   
thought it said."

The President stood in the shadows outside her door,   
watching them work with considerable interest. He'd been   
not a little surprised by Sam's apparent concern for the   
Republican lawyer's comfort, and now he thought he   
understood. Listening to them debate whether an ancient   
statute from the days of Roosevelt (the first one) could   
be applied to a case of something-or-other, he came to   
the conclusion that Ainsley Hayes was a female Republican   
Sam. They argued the same way - by making sarcastic   
quips and repeating the same things over and over with   
different intonations; they thought along the same lines   
\- their brainstorming session seemed less like Ainsley   
trying to catch the flaws in his thinking and more like   
a race to see which of them would reach the same   
conclusion first; and at the moment they were wearing   
very similar tired expressions. Despite this, he noted,   
his two younger staffers were both quite good-looking   
people. With a knowing grin he watched Sam reach   
comfortably over Ainsley for a stack of papers, watched   
her grab his arm as it went past to get his attention,   
and watched him lean practically into her lap to look at   
the page she had found while she explained something to   
him. A lot of things made a great deal of sense all of a   
sudden. Wiping the smile off his face, the President   
cleared his throat and stepped into the room.

Sam looked startled; Ainsley just looked pale and a   
little sick. They both jumped to their feet, Ainsley   
tugging nervously at the bottom of her shirt. "Mr.   
President," they said almost in unison.

"Sam." He nodded at her, trying to look not scary. "Miss   
Hayes."

"Sir," she replied, stunned.

He decided to cut her off before she could start rambling   
\- Leo had warned him before the first time, but   
fortunately she'd been so horrified that she hadn't even   
been able to talk. "Sam," he said, addressing himself by   
habit and familiarity to his speechwriter, "this was so   
exciting I had to come down here and tell you myself.   
NASA's located Galileo V."

"The probe?" Ainsley asked at the same time that Sam   
asked, "How?" He glanced at her to make sure she was   
done. "After all this time?" he asked.

"It drifted back into range or something, Leo's getting   
the whole story," the President explained. "They're   
going to start broadcasting pictures right through to the   
networks in," he checked his watch, "thirty-five   
minutes. The staff is gathering in the Oval Office to   
watch, I want you up there." He turned and bestowed what   
he hoped was a friendly smile. "You too, Miss Hayes."

"Me?" Ainsley asked in disbelief, her voice rising to   
soprano tones and her eyebrows lifting practically to   
her hairline. "You want me to come and watch the   
satellite footage in the Oval Office?"

"Yes," he replied.

"In the Oval Office?"

"Yes," the President repeated, starting to smile again.   
He understood something else about Ainsley now that he   
suspected Leo and Sam had figured out long before - what   
often passed for arrogance was actually self- conscious   
shyness. As he had observed before they knew he was   
there, once she was comfortable with someone she seemed   
fine, but around important people she froze, giving the   
appearance of cold disdain. Now that he knew that, he   
began to understand what Leo found endearing about her.

"Are you sure?" she asked. The President tried to hide a   
smile as he saw Sam hit her.

"I'm sure," he replied. "My staff and their assistants   
are all coming in to watch it with me. You come along up   
with Sam."

"Yes, sir," she replied, shocked pleasure making her   
blush faintly.

The President nodded to both of them and turned to go.   
"Oh, Miss Hayes?" he called from the doorway.

She finally dared to correct him. "Ainsley," she said   
shakily.

"Ainsley," he repeated. He jerked his head toward Sam. "I   
didn't say you were a blond Republican sex kitten, he   
did." With that he turned and headed back up the stairs.

He found little to occupy himself for the next half-hour   
\- as the leader of the free world he realized that   
should probably worry him, but it didn't. He stood   
pensively behind his desk, looking out the window at the   
dark Washington night and imagining he could see the   
prodigal satellite glowing out in space. He didn't notice   
how much time had passed until he heard the door open   
and close.

"How much time?" Toby asked, Bonnie right behind him.

The President looked at his watch. "Five minutes."

Toby turned and yelled at the closed door, "Ginger!"

"She's coming," Josh reported, flying in with Margaret on   
his heels. "Leo's getting off the phone now. Where's   
Sam?"

"On his way up, I would think," the President replied.

"Up?"

"From Ainsley's office," Ginger explained as she and   
Donna elbowed through the doors. "How much time?"

"Four minutes," Toby told her, pulling out a chair for   
her beside the one Bonnie had already taken. Josh   
dropped onto the couch, already muttering something only   
his assistant could hear. The door swung open again and   
admitted Leo, who then held it for Carol and Cathy.   
Charlie and C.J. followed closely, talking excitedly   
about moons or Mars or something - or rather, C.J. was   
talking excitedly and Charlie was listening with a smile.   
Sam slipped in a moment later, looking as though he'd   
actually had to drag Ainsley by her arm, and Mrs.   
Landingham followed the last of the staff into the Oval   
Office.

C.J. grabbed the TV remote and flipped it on, seating   
herself on a footrest and leaning near to the set.   
Charlie dropped to a squatting position on the floor   
beside her, directing her which channel to tune to.

As the network news broke in to the regular programming   
with, as C.J. had once put it, "a logo and theme music,"   
the President looked around at his assembled staff with a   
satisfied expression. These were his people. C.J. was   
still leaning forward, her elbows resting on her knees,   
in the same posture he'd been seeing since she watched   
their first primary results come in. Charlie still knelt   
beside her, a hand resting on the stool to balance   
himself, his face absolutely rapt. Toby was standing   
between the chairs he'd pulled for his assistants,   
leaning on his arm over Ginger's chair. Cathy was on her   
other side, perched on the arm of the chair. Leo had   
seated himself on the end of the couch nearest Bonnie,   
with Margaret beside him and Carol leaning over his   
shoulder. As the anchor started to explain the news he   
turned to his best friend and smiled, as if to say, "We   
did it after all."

Josh was sprawled on the other couch, resting informally   
back on the cushions. Donna had prodded Mrs. Landingham   
onto the couch beside him and was sitting in front of   
them on the floor with her back lightly resting against   
Josh's knees. He seemed not to notice her, but as the   
President watched he noticed Josh shift his legs forward   
just a fraction so that he could better feel her there.   
No matter how cavalier Josh seemed about her, the   
President reflected, there were always little things   
like that - little signs that he was always checking to   
make sure Donna was there. And she always was, bless her.   
She sat in front of her boss, a reassuring presence even   
if he wasn't consciously aware of it, with a wide-eyed   
look to rival Charlie's on her schoolgirl-pretty face.   
Sam and Ainsley, almost the last to arrive, stood side by   
side behind the couch, Sam just a little behind Ainsley,   
close together but just barely not touching. Every now   
and then Ainsley would look away from the TV to glance   
nervously over her shoulder at the President. He was   
careful not to be watching her when she did.

Then the anchor was off, and the screen went black - and   
then the first transmitted picture from the lost and   
found Galileo V appeared. It showed a rough view of   
Mars's surface, not quite as reddish as expected and   
covered with a rugged terrain that looked like a   
topographical map of the ocean floor. Carol gasped aloud   
and C.J. turned to smile at her. Toby's hand dropped to   
Ginger's shoulder, and Charlie murmured aloud, "That's   
all the way out in space, right now." The picture   
changed to a shot of earth taken from the edge of Mars,   
and Bonnie cracked, "Hey, there we are." They all   
laughed quietly and Leo repeated reverently, "There we   
are." The earth glowed with moonlight in the crystal-  
clear satellite photos, land and water swirling together   
under wisps of cloud cover. Josh leaned forward a little   
and whispered something to Donna that no one else heard,   
except possibly Mrs. Landingham, who smiled gently. 

As the President looked over, he saw Ainsley cross her   
arms over herself and sigh softly. Her expressive face   
looked completely overwhelmed, and he thought he   
understood. The rest of them had gotten used to   
happenings, if not quite this stellar (no pun intended),   
then at least pretty grand, but all this was new to her.   
She'd never experienced history like this before. Sam   
didn't look at her, and it was possible he didn't even   
realize what he was doing, but his arm reached out and   
slipped around Ainsley's waist, pulling her back against   
him. Without taking her eyes from the pictures on the   
television she leaned her head back against Sam's   
shoulder and covered his hand with both of her own. She   
forgot to check for the President's reaction, confirming   
his suspicion that Sam had a calming effect on her. The   
President leaned back in his chair feeling thoroughly   
satisfied. Asking Ainsley up here had been a good idea.   
Bringing her on board had been his idea and it was high   
time he remembered that she was part of the team. These   
people were his people. They were good people - smart,   
and idealistic, and full of wonder. The picture changed,   
Sam said something to Josh over Ainsley's shoulder, Donna   
turned to answer him, and C.J. leaned down to point   
something out to Charlie. The President nodded to   
himself, knowing that none of them could see him. For   
this one moment, all was right with the world.

The End.


End file.
